Magic Leap Natively Backs OpenXR Dev Teams

The immense support for open-source XR technologies is set to drive global interoperability

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Published: April 27, 2023

Demond Cureton

Magic Leap announced this week that its Magic Leap 2 augmented reality (AR) headset had increased its compatibility with OpenXR.

In a statement on Tuesday, the company reaffirmed its commitment to “building an open and accessible [AR] ecosystem.” This aims to back enterprises and developers across industry verticals.

The Plantation, Florida-based firm has developed its relationship with OpenXR since its founding to boost interoperability across XR devices.

“As the most immersive AR device on the leading extended reality (XR) industry standard API, we are committed to empowering developers, enterprises, and users with greater choice and faster innovation in an increasingly dynamic industry,” the company explained.

With the new conformity milestone, Magic Leap can allow its users to develop XR applications for a host of current and upcoming devices.

Doing so will provide a platform for developing open and accessible ecosystems to build “cross-platform solutions.” This hopes to remove siloed development technologies leading to “walled gardens” and “cloud lock-in,” Magic Leap explained.

Efforts to boost device and content interoperability would also lower time and overhead costs to develop and adapt solutions across platforms. Markets would benefit from compatible, open-source solutions across platforms.

Benefits of Interoperability Push

According to the XR firm, deepening ties to OpenXR would provide numerous tangible benefits, including:

Solution portability to allow developers to build one solution, portable and optimised across other platforms. This significantly increases the likelihood of adoption across other headsets, platforms, and solutions. A greater number of companies can then adopt developer creations for current and future AR devices.

Scalability across existing solutions to the Magic Leap 2. Features from this include access to unrivalled optics, a 70 degree field of view (FoV), and Dynamic Dimming, among others.

Enhanced user flexibility, offering enterprises more freedom of choice, ease of use, and open platform support. The upgrades would include native OpenXR support and cloud autonomy, which would not require connections to centralised servers or other services.

Developer accessibility, providing developers with a greater capacity for innovation. This enables smaller developer teams with limited resources to unlock their solutions to larger markets.

Magic Leap and OpenXR’s commitment to backing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) would create a “virtuous cycle of market evolution and expansion,” the company said in its statement.

Augmenting platform capabilities with OpenXR will enable Magic Leap’s in-house dev teams to produce new engines and features for the Magic Leap 2. This will provide teams more time for optimising their solutions, rather than adapting them to each new ecosystem in the market.

Magic Leap and the OpenXR Working Group

The news comes as Magic Leap joins the OpenXR Working Group as its Vice Chair to advise the body on technical issues and boost collaboration among members. This involves all parties of the organisations, including developers, end-users, standards’ groups, and those working on best practices for the sector.

The Khronos Group developed OpenXR’s global ecosystem for virtual, augmented, mixed, and extended reality (VR/AR/MR/XR) solutions.

The company said: “We are constantly working to amplify the benefits of OpenXR for our developers and end users by developing new extensions and expanding support for existing extensions […] Internally, we are working on a number of new extensions to give developers easy access to the advanced AR capabilities of Magic Leap 2.”

Contributions to vendor extensions include the company’s Global Dimming technology and, in the future, Plane Detection extension. Major users of OpenXR include industry heavyweights such as NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Meta Platforms, AMD, Intel, and many others.

Magic Leap 2 Expansion, Innovation

The news comes amid Magic Leap’s push to increase its market share in the immersive sector. It hopes to achieve this by expanding its certifications and collaborating with medical and automotive firms.

For example, Chief Executive Peggy Johnson announced in January that the Magic Leap 2 received 60601 medical certification. The effort now allows doctors to use the device for operating room environments, surgeries, patient follow-ups, and other use cases.

Professionals can now access key patient data on the fly, expediting workflows and offering patients improved service turnaround times.

IEC 60601 allows surgeons and doctors can use the device in an operating room and other medical settings. This eliminates the need to look at computer screens by overlaying key data such as 3D visuals, records, and messaging.

Audi Adopts Magic Leap 2

The company also revealed its collaboration with Audi Motors for the latter’s Activesphere concept car. The futuristic vehicle features Magic Leap’s AR headsets to connect drivers with critical driving data while on the road.

Audi’s Design Studio developed the next-generation concept car with Magic Leap 2 headsets, providing a spatially-anchored interface with real-time road conditions. Doing so removes the need for AR-enhanced windscreens or navigational units, reducing costs for repairs and offering precision data for motorists.

The solution streams key data such as trip lengths, driving modes, navigational waypoints, driving and road conditions, and incoming alerts. Drivers using the device can pair with the Activesphere while leveraging the headset’s cutting-edge hand and eye-tracking technologies.

The developments also come after the company announced at a recent panel talk it would launch its products across 19 global markets.

Revealed at the Immerse Global Summit (IGS) 2022 Europe, then-VP of Marketing Lisa Watts said: “It’s been a journey to get here. Magic Leap 2 stands on the shoulders of giants and the force of the entire industry.”

 

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